A Trip to Romania

The week has been a busy one for us. Lots to do. That is always good.
While Brent was slaving away, I was able to do some much needed sewing and repairing and cooking for next week's Zone Conferences. I also worked hard on my blanket, I have been working unhard at for several months. It is almost ready.

By the time Friday came we were ready to leave to go to Romania. It was a pleasant drive. This is a picture of the border. I didn't dare take it any closer; wanted to be allowed to cross. This one took only 25 minutes. Brent had time to get the vignette (which is the road tax you pay to drive on their roads) while we waited. We were very close to Oreada, Romania when we crossed. After checking into our hotel, we decided to go to dinner before attending the fireside that night. The fireside was for the young adults from 11 different countries. There was a rumble in the back of the auditorium of translations being made in many different languages. The common language was English, which was not the language of most of the kids there. It was, however, secondary to a good sized group of them.

We met a couple from Holland and we had dinner together. It was so nice to get to know them. Their name was Noots (prounounced notes). Really great people. Turns out that they know the Servoss', and the Beckstrands (who are currently serving in Holland). So small this world. Sorry, but somehow it didn't come out.

After the fireside, we met the former branch president of Oreada, who said he knows all about us. That had me worried just a bit, but when he introduced himself the told us that he is the brother of the Claytons in our home (26th) ward.He looks alot like her.

This is his family. His wife the the Family History person in charge of Romania. She presented at the meeting that Brent went to on Saturday. She made a very impressive presentation. I actually asked her if she was from America. She is Romanian. He was in the meeting to be a translator. Here we are with our picture by the Hungarian flag.

Saturday in the morning, we went over to the church to the meeting. We went to the very first part of the meeting. Then we (Sr. Baughman, Sister Hill and I) left to go on a tour of the city with Bela Weber, who was a missionary in Hungary when we were there.

The group in the meeting were a very impressive group of men, who are the real leaders of the Church in both Romania and Hungary, along with our Area Authority Seventy, Elder Schutze. A Remarkable group of people that we are honored to be associated with while serving in our mission. I do not have words to tell you how impressed we are with all of these great men. Only two of them were Americans (not including Brent).

Brent made a presentation, which we felt was pretty good. He had lots of questions and felt that he made progess and acquaintences with those whom we serve in our calling.

It was cold and most of these kids were either waiting for a train that didn't come until 6 p.m., or for a fireside Saturday evening. They didn't know where else to go but the church. This is the group that ended up walking in the rain with us to see a portion of Oreada. It soon got cold so we found a small bistro, with enough seats for all of us and we went in and ordered hot chocolate. We had several adventures while we were there. One young man didn't want hot chocolate. He finally made it known that he was hungary and wanted food, so he ordered french fries. Poor Sis. Hill spilled her hot chocolate all over her. She handled it very well. It did make quite a mess and the restaurant helpers quickly had it cleaned up.

I have to tell you about the hot chocolate. It came in tall mugs and contained only white, whipped milk. On the saucer there was a stick with a "lollipop" of chocolate (choice, light, dark and a couple of others) which you then put in the chocolate and stir it around till it melts. It was not as sweet as we usually have, but was very tasty!

We ended up going back to the church and sitting in a room and whispering quietly so as to not disturb the meeting. The branch house is pretty small with old doors that do not close tightly.

When the meeting was over, we drove to Debrecen, checked into the hotel and then went to the home of the Branch President for dinner. You can see what we ate. The Elders also came to eat and they really ate lots. They are not dressed up as they came right from the branch house where they were cleaning the building for Sunday. We had a great time and got the Elders home on time. It was wonderful to spend time with Misi and Marianne, and their two boys.

Sunday we spoke in church and Brent took some time to go over some things with the Branch Clerk that needed to be worked on and then we drove home.

We got caught in a traffic jam on the way because of construction which held us up for about 40 minutes. That seems to be very commonplace for our travels. It was a very worthwhile trip for us.

We continue to have "cold" weather with lots of rain. I guess we should be grateful that it is in the 50's to 70's with 100% humidity some days.

This is a very short week....

Because I last did the blog on Wednesday, it is a short information week. And, it was pretty mundane for most of it.

We were so happy that we got the wi-fi fixed on Tuesday, so Wednesday we could do lots of work and check to see what we had missed in all our e-mails. Tuesday afternoon and evening I went to the mission home and helped with the new missionary dinner. It was very kind of Sr. Baughman to give me something to do. We also went to our favorite fruitstand and bought fruit in the morning for the dinner. What good stuff is coming on now.

Wednesday we stayed home and washed, cleaned and caught up on computer stuff; entered information, etc. Nothing too exciting.

Thursday we went down to the mission home to meet Elder Hintze's parents, who live in the Sullengers stake and Liz knows her from girl's camp. After, we did a little shopping at the mall close by the former Moskva Ter. They have changed the name of the square. We saw it on the bus route sign and thought they had re-rerouted our bus. Some day we will remember the new name.

That was about as exciting as that day got. Brent had a bunch of stuff to do in the office, so he was able to accomplish much of that.

On Friday we did have an adventure. We drove over to Pest to the US Embassy. We had never been there. It is located sort of behind the Parliment Building by a street or two. We easily found a parking spot right by a park. We walked to the Embassy building and were not allowed in, so Brent called the phone number that we had, and found that we were not at the right building, but that it was right across the street from where we parked. We were at the embassy, but the office we needed was in the other building. Silly us. At the Embassy they are putting up new fencing and doing some other repairs, it appears and security is in abundance. Because we asked about going in, they had to check our passports. They were very nice about it.

We went to the other building and picked up Brent's prescriptions. Then we walked across the street to the Apothocary (Pharmacy) to have them filled. We got only one of them, the rest they had to order in. We will pick them up this week. Amazing the difference in cost.

Because we had not ever been there, we decided to walk around the park. It was at a time that it was not raining. It has been raining lots since Wednesday. Who did we run into?

Our good friend Ron. I decided to take a stroll with him.
This is a new statue that was just put in place. It was done by a Hungarian sculptor. Condeleesa Rice came over to give a speech at the unveiling. It was a pretty big deal. As I was taking some pictures, there was a man behind me taking pictures and I didn't know and I stepped into his view. I turned and apologized to him, and he told me that Pres. R. meant as much to the Hungarians as he did to us. I heard some other European tourists say that Hilary Clinton had come for the unveiling. Actually, she came the next day for something else.
This is the building that was right in front of where we were parked. Really nice frescos on the front of it.

Saturday we attended a baptism in the Buda Ward of a family. What a big deal!
So seldom whole families come into the Church together. The mom, dad, and daughter are on the right side. One of the missionaries, Elder Allen, who taught them and the mission leader are on the left. It was a great baptism. Actually it was a member who invited them to learn about the church.

We also got a new senior sister on Saturday. Sister Chase, the temporary YSA sister, went back to Germany to finish her mission and Sister Hansen from Bakersfield, CA has come to fill that vacancy and serve with Sister Smith. Sunday we went to church in the Pest Ward and before the meeting a family we didn't know came up to us and spoke English. They are the Budds (not related to our old bishop) and are living in Armenia, but on vacation here. He served a mission in Hungary with the first mission president of this mission and was one of the first missionaries in hungary. They are from Wyoming; she is from Star Valley and know Anita from the school. Her parents know both Ken and Anita Hokanson. This world keeps getting smaller. We had to take a picture with them and the Bishop of the Pest Ward, who remembers Bro. Budd as a missionary. The Bishop was only 15 at the time.

This week I am going to begin a sewing project....and borrowed a sewing machine to tackle it. Now I have to find the thread store. If you buy material in one store, you have to go to another to get the thread. So many little tiny stores all over. It makes for a good search for Waldo, or whatever we need to find.

This is just an extra for those of you who want to look at it. It is a video that I took at the concert last week of our former landlord (last mission) and friend singing. I hope you enjoy it.

And Here It Is....

So, here is the real thing. We had a couple of very interesting weeks. To start off with, we picked up Kellie Scherbel from the airport along with her friend. Of course, their luggage didn't make it with them. Such fun. They spent one night with us and then set out on their way to visit people they would never see again. This is Kellie playing on the I pad that belonged to her friend. This is our spare bedroom that doubles as an office. The pink, purple and yellow on the map is our territory.

We went to lunch with the Mission President and his wife one afternoon and couldn't pass up the dessert. Brian do you want me to get dishes this big?
. Thursday Morning the 7th we headed out. We met with the District President and the District Clerk regarding the audits and other items. It was very pleasant. Brent was able to drive right to the Branch building without having the GPS help him out. After our meeting we were able to go the the president's home and have lunch with his family. They are so nice and warm and cordial. Fortunately, their son is fluent in English or we would have to do a lot more pantomiming. It was wonderful to spend some time with them again. They are such lovely people.

We got off on our way to Poland. The travel was pretty regular...you know a castle every so often. It is sort of like Utah; a chapel every so often and sometimes two. Love these old castles.

They have nice church's too.

First stop: Lublin, Poland. We were able to meet with the young elders who run the branch. After our meeting we went with them to lunch. As you can see we sat in a sidewalk cafe and ate our Subway sandwiches. The Elder in the picture is Elder Plumb. When Brent called to set up the meeting, one of the first things Elder Plumb asked was "do you know Robert Gudgell?" Turns out he was one of the 11-year old scouts Rob had when they lived in Sugarhouse. It was so nice to meet him and his companion.

Our travels then took us to Warsaw, where we again met with some local leaders. Such wonderful people who take their Church responsibilities so seriously. Sometimes it seems like they are building the church in their area one grain of sand at a time. They are wonderful.

On to Gdansk, Poland; right at the top of the country right on the Baltic Sea. In the background you can see an old ship, which is a tourist item, and right behind it is the shipyards. It makes me think of the uprising some years ago. It changed the lives of the Polish people right there.

We loved our short walk on the inlet of the Baltic. It was beautiful and peaceful for us.

Sunday morning we had lots of time and were up very early so went back down nearby where we were the night before, but could not go to because of a big concert in this area.

We found the Bounty. The actual ship that was built for the movie "Mutiny on the Bounty". If you look at the buildings in the background you can see a real Scandinavian influence on the architecture in this northern part of Poland.

We went to the church. It is an old home that they have converted to be the branch house. It was a wonderful little branch. Brent was able to meet with the brethren and assist them in their understanding of the running of the church. There were several local members in attendance, two students doing an internship from Utah, a missionary couple, and another member couple from the US. The branch pres has been a member for about two years. I would have guessed that he was a returned missionary, but not so. We were asked to speak in sacrament meeting. It was such a warm cozy feeling being with them.

We then had one more stop to make on our travels: Szczecin. Try saying that. Again, we met with the young missionaries who run that small branch. One was pretty new and the other is from Frankfurt. They were doing a nice job there. The elder from Germany had been a branch clerk two other times, and it showed in his record keeping.

This sign is for Tom. We had been told not to drive back down through Poland, but to travel on the good German highway down the border, so we did.

We got off the autoban just long enough to drive through Berlin. Those are blocks from the wall that have been made into a remembrance park. It is right across the street from the American Embassy.

This was an impressive monument down the road a way.Brandenburg Gate. So much history here. "Mr. Gorbachev, take down this wall." And he did. It is impressive.

Big train station in Berlin. All the train stations in big European cities are very impressive buildings.

After driving through there, we went on our way.

This was the first time I really felt that we were being helpful to those who we visited with. It was a good feeling and a good trip.

When we returned home we found that our internet was not working. It took us a week to get someone to come and fix it. It is now fixed.

This week has been interesing because suddenly we realized how dependent we are on the internet for getting our work done. We did make several trips to the mission office to use their facilities...if any were available. It has been pretty busy in the office because it is transfer week and new missionaries, as well as they are still working on the remodeling/redecorating of the building.

We did have couple of our former missionaries call us this week Weston Baxter and his beautiful wife, Katie were in town. We went to dinner with them. They will stay with us in a few weeks prior to going home. Last night thay called and invited us to go to dinner with them and (Elder) Brockbank and his wife to Viapiano's. Brockbank has Spanish Fork roots and is related to Nan on both his Mother and Fathers lines. We found that out when his Parents came and picked him up two years ago. Nan was helping out in the mission home with the new missionaries coming in and I felt she would be mad if I went without her. So I stayed home and had beans on toast. Such a sacrafice. (What a martyr)

Global warming is upon us again, after several rather warm, sweaty days, it is in the 70's and has been raining quite a bit today.

We are most appreciative of being able to be back to normal...if anything is normal. We hope you are too; normal, that is.

Coming Soon

This is just the teaser....

To blogs near you...a post from us. Unfortunately. we have been experiencing technical difficulties .... no wifi in our apt. As soon as it is corrected we will send tons of pictures and exciting dialogue for your pure enjoyment, and our relief.

Rain, rain go away...

This past week has been filled with rain and cold weather. We have put the blankets back on the bed and closed most of the windows. It has been in the upper 60's at most. It is hard to believe that it is July.

Fortunately, most of what we had to do was shop for food. We made Brent's first trip to Metro. Metro is like Costco. We have our own card...wow! We were looking for food for later in the week. It was a good trip, but always costs us. They really have nice meat there and that was what we were looking for...good hamburger. More about that later.

The Mission Office is being redone and it looked like a war torn country and the computers were all unusable, no phones, no desks, etc. So, we got invited to go on an adventure and because we didn't have too much pressing for part of that day, we joined the Bagozzis and the Folsters and drove to Herend, by Lake Balatone. It was a nice little city, with it's most famous porcelain factory. We were able to go on a nice tour of the factory. It was very interesting. They have it set up so that we can see all the phases of pottery making and painting. Everything in their factory is hand painted. It is a very old business in Hungary.

Before the tour we went through the museum and then were treated to a little cup of coffee, tea, or soda. You know what we got.

These are some of the very Hungarian pieces. Everything is not so Hungarian looking as these are.
Having see how these are all done gives a greater appreciation for porcelain pieces.

I really like this one... can't remember the price, but it is not something I could ever, ever afford.


They had a whole zoo and animals. I only have a few for you to see. All hand painted .
They have many other lovely ones to see. What looks like a plate behind the pitcher is actually the backside of a bowl on the other side of this case.

This would be a nice souviner, however, I just don't think I could get it in my suitcase. The painting on it is Parlament in Budapest.

Brent has a new friend. They had lots of these masks....funny. The rest of the week was mostly spent at home, doing our stuff: office work, cleaning, cooking, etc. Saturday evening was a diversion. We celebrated the 4th of July with what we thought would be a cook out, but we didn't quite make it. The little bar-be-ques that we bought were not hot enough, so we had a cook-in. Hamburgers, corn on the cob, potato salad, apple pie and ice cream. Nothing more American than that. After we played dominos, again. Again, I was the looser.

Sunday we attended church and then picked up Kellie Scherbal and her friend at the airport. We were beginning to wonder if they had missed their plane, when they came out and said that their luggage did not arrive with them. We are hoping it is found and they can get it today.

They stayed with us last night and now are going to move on to the next phase of their trip. At least we now know that the beds are sleepable. Hope we have some more company.

Today is Monday and we are just back to normal and will be moving on with all our things to do to be ready for our next adventure. Maybe we will have more pictures.

We are happy to be here in Hungary and Eastern Europe and continue to find it wonderful to interact with all the wonderful people both here and in the other countries that we get to work in.

This should be a busy week for us. I hope yours will be as productive.